Connaught in property query

Administrators working to unravel the complex collapse of failed support
services group Connaught have drafted in a team of solicitors to investigate
the ownership of a £1m property connected to the company.

By James Quinn

7:00AM GMT 07 Nov 2010

The property – a mixed retail and storage building in Tooting, London, valued at an estimated £1m – is thought to be owned by Connaught Partnerships, one of the failed companies' main subsidiaries, which is part of the administration.

Connaught

David Costley-Wood, of KPMG, found that the property was not transferred from subsidiary A E Williams, a Tooting-based company bought by Connaught for £6.5m in 2007.

As a result, KPMG is now working with lawyers and directors of Connaught Partnerships to establish the ownership. The situation is made more complicated because A E Williams, which has lain largely dormant since its acquisition, is not in administration and so does not fall under KPMG's remit.

If the title of the building can be established and then sold, it will provide further funds to be distributed to creditors.

The question mark over ownership of the property will form part of the administrators' report to the Insolvency Service on the conduct of the directors in the run-up to the collapse. The report has to be filed within six months of the administration order, which was made on September 8.